COTA Race Review

    

Tyler Reddick

    Tyler Reddick has achieved something that hasn't been done since 1949 which is win the first 3 races of a NASCAR season. Everything has gone right so far for this 45 team, as he has a 70 point lead over his teammate Bubba Wallace in the points standings. Reddick is currently in his 4th season with 23XI, and he's already got 8 wins with the team. This is including his winless 2025 season, where he still finished 9th in the final standings. He's got a major lead in the standings, and with how well rounded he has become, I expect him to stay at the top for a while moving forward.

    The most impressive thing to me with Reddick is that he's done this during the Next Gen Era, where parity is at its highest. The most wins a driver has had in a season with this car is 6 which was achieved by both William Byron and Denny Hamlin. That said, Reddick could realistically break that record because he's good at every track type. I could legit see him getting almost 10 wins this year. I don't think that'll happen, but he could legit do that this year. He's got a great future ahead of him so long as he stays with 23XI in the future as he is a free agent this upcoming offseason. If 23XI lets him walk, it would be a grave mistake.

The Finish 

    The last 15 laps or so were set up by a Ross Chasten caution, where he lost a wheel which ended his chances of getting a good finish. On the restart, Reddick got out to the lead, while SVG got past Ryan Blaney for 2nd. From there, it turned into a battle between Reddick and SVG, where SVG stayed in touch until about 10 laps to go. Reddick was able to pull away slowly but surely, as SVG used up whatever stuff he had left in that car. Reddick would then pull out to a near 4 second lead when he came across the line to pick up the win.

    Reddick led 53 laps at COTA, but he was certainly human at times. In stage 1, Reddick fell back to 8th place in stage 1, but was able to make his way back up into the top 5 before he pitted to flip the stage. At the beginning of stage 2, however, he was able to get out in front and controlled the stage before pitting again before the stage end. From then on, he was able to hold back the field behind him. 

Full Results & Notable Finishers

• 1. Tyler Reddick
• 2. Shane van Gisbergen  
• 3.Christopher Bell  
• 4. Ty Gibbs  
• 5. Michael McDowell  
• 6. Kyle Larson  
• 7. Chase Elliott  
• 8. Ryan Blaney  
• 9. AJ Allmendinger  
• 10. Denny Hamlin  
• 11. Bubba Wallace  
• 12. Kyle Busch  
• 13. William Byron  
• 14. Connor Zilisch  
• 15. Joey Logano  
• 16. Ty Dillon  
• 17. John Hunter Nemechek  
• 18. Ryan Preece  
• 19. Austin Dillon  
• 20. Brad Keselowski  
• 21. Todd Gilliland  
• 22. Noah Gragson  
• 23. Riley Herbst  
• 24. Chris Buescher  
• 25. Daniel Suárez  
• 26. Josh Berry  
• 27. Jesse Love  
• 28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  
• 29. Cole Custer  
• 30. Cody Ware  
• 31. Carson Hocevar  
• 32. Austin Cindric  
• 33. Zane Smith  
• 34. Erik Jones  
• 35. Ross Chastain  
• 36. Alex Bowman  
• 37. Chase Briscoe 

       I do believe that Connor Zilisch could have won this race if he wasn't taken out twice in turn number 1. The first time he was taken out was by Daniel Suarez at the beginning of stage 2, but Zilisch managed to drive his way all the way back up to fourth before the final caution occurred. On the ensuing restart, Denny Hamlin made an aggressive move down to the inside and made contact with Christopher Bell, who hit William Byron, and then hit Zane Smith who delivered the final blow to Zilisch. Zilisch was able to get back up to 14th, but he had the pace to contend with Reddick late if he stayed up there. 

    Shane van Gisbergen wasn't the dominating force that many of us expected him to be today. He was good, but he was probably the 3rd or 4th best car for the majority of the day. He didn't contend very much with Reddick or Blaney all race, which was a bit surprising. That said, COTA is his worst road course for whatever reason, as he had been shut out in all of his NASCAR starts until yesterday where he won the O'Reily race. SVG's good run vaulted him up into 5th in the regular season standings, which he'll need especially with all of the ovals that are coming up. 

    The other major contender today was Ryan Blaney, who ended up finishing 8th as he faded on that last run. That said, Blaney looked really good out there as he stayed with Tyler Reddick for most of that final stage until the Chasten caution occurred. An 8th place result will be disappointing, but the 12 team has found something on the road courses especially with their strong run today and from Watkins Glen last summer. I expect Blaney to be a threat this year for the regular season title, so getting a good finish today at least keeps him up inside the top 5 in points.

    Christopher Bell got into it with Kyle Larson a bit there during stage 2 when the two banged doors, but Bell ultimately got the better of Larson, coming up with a good 3rd place finish. His JGR teammate Ty Gibbs was quiet today, but did collect 15 stage points which was the most of any driver. Gibbs restarted stage 3 in the mid 20s, but he was running up in the top 10 before the final caution. He elected to pit alongside guys like Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, and more which helped him finish 4th. Denny Hamlin got his 3rd top 10 at a road course in the Next Gen era with a hurt shoulder which is really impressive. Hamlin was maybe a 15th place car at best today, but keeping the track position helped him get that top 10 result.

    Other finishers in the top 10 include Michael McDowell (5th), Kyle Larson (6th), Chase Elliott (7th) and Aj Allmendinger (9th). McDowell had a solid day today, but was just not a threat to win. He had top 5 speed all day and finished right where he ran. As for Larson, he needed a good finish after he had mediocre finishes at Daytona and Atlanta. He was pretty inconsistent this race, as he looked fast in stage 1, but faded in stage 2. Chase Elliott was surprisingly quiet today, as he ran outside the top 10 most of the day. He had a long pit stop at the end of stage 1 which set him back. He pit right before the Chastain caution, so he stayed out and got up to 7th. Allmendinger collected a lot of stage points today as well, but he wasn't able to move forward as well compared to a guy like Ty Gibbs who was on the same strategy during the 2nd stage. 

    Bubba Wallace got a solid 11th place finish at a track style that he has struggled at historically. That said, he used the fresh tires at the end to finish just outside the top 10. Disappointing days for both Kyle Busch (12th) and William Byron (13th) as Busch never ran inside the top 10 and Byron faded that last run. Ross Chastain (35th) lost a wheel leading to the team losing 2 laps and squandering a top 10 run. Alex Bowman (36th) was not feeling good all race and was subbed out by Myatt Snider late in stage 3. Bowman is currently last among full time drivers in points which is not good early on. The last very disappointing driver is Chase Briscoe (37th) , who had some sort of axle issue which forced him to go behind the wall and ended his day early.

Current Standings 

• Tyler Reddick: +118  
• Bubba Wallace: +48  
• Chase Elliott: +46  
• Ryan Blaney: +32  
• Shane van Gisbergen: +22  
• Joey Logano: +22  
• Daniel Suarez: +19  
• AJ Allmendinger: +18  
• Michael McDowell: +15  
• Carson Hocevar: +14  
• Chris Buescher: +13  
• Brad Keselowski: +10  
• William Byron: +8  
• Zane Smith: +7  
• Kyle Larson: +5  
• Ryan Preece: +0  
• Ty Gibbs: –3  
• Noah Gragson: –3  
• Ty Dillon: –3  
• Ross Chastain: –4  
• John Hunter Nemechek: –5  
• Kyle Busch: –7  
• Denny Hamlin: –8  
• Christopher Bell: –9  
• Riley Herbst: –15  
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: –19  
• Chase Briscoe: –22  
• Josh Berry: –23  
• Cole Custer: –30  
• Todd Gilliland: –31  
• Austin Cindric: –31  
• Connor Zilisch: –33  
• Cody Ware: –33  
• Austin Dillon: –35  
• Erik Jones: –40  
• Alex Bowman: –50 

    The last driver that is currently in is Ryan Preece with Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Ty Dillon, and Ross Chastain the first four out. I expect these standings to change a lot over the next three weeks with Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Darlington. 

Overall Thoughts

    I thought this race was a really solid one. I get that road course racing isn't everyone's favorite but I enjoyed the variety of comers and goers that we saw throughout the field. Previous COTA races often devolved into a demolition derby especially in turn 1, but the field kept it mostly clean throughout the day. There were a couple of small incidents throughout the day, but nothing that I thought was super egregious. COTA was super racy and people could make passes at most areas on the road course. I don't really get the hate for this track or this race in general. It should be a mainstay on the schedule for years to come and should operate as the third traditional road course that NASCAR has on the schedule. I don't really want to go back to the days of only having 2 road courses on the schedule with Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

    The one thing that I dislike when it comes to road courses are the stage breaks that come from it. This is mostly because people are forced to either flip the stage or grab stage points and give up all of their track position. I get why NASCAR doesn't want to go back to how they did road courses in the summer of 2023, when both Indy and Watkins Glen didn't have many cautions. That said, the stage breaks just waste time and prevents the race from playing out naturally. I'd prefer if the stage cautions were gone, but that's just me. 

    NASCAR is off to a really good start this year and I really hope that NASCAR can continue this up for the rest of the season. Each race feels more important than it did during the playoff era and drivers have to maximize each day to their best of their ability. It's hard to tell who the fastest drivers are at the present moment as we've had 2 super speedways and a road course. That said, I think we will learn a lot more once we get to Phoenix next week. For now, I thought the race was a solid one that featured plenty of action throughout the field!